Next-generation fighting

In the midst of the first year of a console war, it's hard to review a game without looking at the wider world it was released into. Virtua Fighter 5 comes at a time when the Playstation 3 library is anemic. Without a good fighting game or much other compelling content on the system, the PS3 has a content vacuum, and Virtua Fighter has arrived to fill it. This would be a perfect time for Sega to shovel out a sub-par title, but luckily for us, the company took the high road. Virtua Fighter 5 is a solid title.

The series has a reputation for appealing to hardcore fighting fans; the very name often gives the images of smoky arcades and slightly smelly players practicing for hours on end to master the split-second timing of some of the harder combos. This image is well-deserved: while button-mashers can do some interesting things in games like Soul Caliber, Virtua Fighter games force players to learn the different directional taps and contextual moves. It's part of the challenge, part of the fun.

If you're willing to give this some hours of study and practice, you'll open up one of the deepest fighting experiences available on the market. It asks a lot of you before you begin to see what's possible, but with PS3 owners looking for new games on their systems, maybe we'll see a renaissance of Virtua Fighter players.

Let's take a look at what this installation of the Virtua Fighter series brings to the table, and why it's worth the time of more gamers than it will probably attract. While you may feel demoralized if you play against an advanced opponent, this is still a great journey. Welcome to the next-gen Virtua Fighter.

The old favorites, with two new faces

Excitement and invigoration are available to all men

When you first put the disc into your Playstation 3 you're prompted to install the game to the hard drive, and this process takes a few minutes. I had mixed feelings about this: I welcome shorter load times, but I had better see a marked improvement to make me content with giving up a couple gigabytes of hard drive space. The results were mixed: load times aren't bad, but they still seemed the same length as other games that don't need the space.

How big of an issue this is can be debated. The PS3 hard drive is roomy if you have the $600 system, and once you install you won't have to worry about it again, but I was a little irked that the improvement to the loading time wasn't more pronounced.

There are 17 fighters included here, including El Blaze and Eileen. El Blaze fights using the Lucha Libre style, and he's a blast to play and watch; he's a nice contrast to the more martial-arts approach of the other fighters. Eileen fights and moves like a monkey, and I wasn't as impressed with her as a new character. While it's certainly a matter of taste, her style felt generic to me, although without making characters flashier, it's hard to get them to stand out.

The loading screen. You'll be seeing a bit too much of this

Generally, the roster is a good one. Everyone fits very well together; there are no obvious fighters that are overpowered or feel out of place. It's taken five games and countless iterations to get the characters to this level, but at this stage every move and player is so tweaked and refined that the level of polish in the fighting engine is staggering.

Many people have complained about the game's lack of online support, and my associate Frank has explained over in Opposable Thumbs why that feature would be nearly impossible to implement. Still, in my mind Virtua Fighter has always been a game best played with someone right next to you, no matter if that's at the arcade or a home incarnation. This version is no different, but it has a good Arcade and Versus mode if you just want to get your fights going. All seventeen players (excluding Dural) are unlocked from the beginning, so you won't have to waste your time getting all the characters–this is just jump in and play. Refreshing. You can also go into the VF.TV option and watch videos of the computer playing itself using characters you choose, which can actually teach you some decent strategy or combos, especially if you turn on the option that allows you to see what buttons each side is hitting. The Dojo mode is also a good place to brush up on your skills.

You'll notice right away that the PS3 has been very kind to Virtua Fighter: the backgrounds are beautiful to the point of distraction. While some levels do look better than others (the outside areas are particularly gorgeous) everything looks solid and attractive. If you have a large high-definition display I can easily see this becoming one of your showpiece games. The characters look almost as good as the backgrounds, but although the animations are top-notch, the sweat effects just make people look oily, and the clothes seem a little stiff. Still, as you go through everyone's different outfits you'll find some great-looking designs. Simply put: this is a very pretty game, and the 360 version that's coming later this summer has much to live up to.

The backgrounds are beautiful—if slightly unoriginal for fighting games

If you're into two-player fighting, this is certainly a robust game, but what about single-player support? Well, that's where things get dicey.